>A flat tax sounds fair but isn't. It would increase the burden on the poor and reduce the burden on the rich. Of course it is a popular idea with Republicans, who are making a concerted effort in exactly that direction. Robin Hood in reverse.
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>The point is that almost 50% of Americans pay no federal income tax at all. The top 1 percent of income earners paid 38 percent of all federal income taxes in 2008, while the bottom 50 percent paid only 3 percent. Forty-nine percent of U.S. households paid no federal income tax at all.
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>http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/top10-percent-income-earners
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>Everyone should have some skin in the game. That includes the 49% of Americans who paid no federal income tax at all.

I hope you are sitting down. I don't agree with you ;-)

First, just to be sure I understand the facts, the 49% who pay no federal income tax do not all come from the bottom 50% of contributors, correct? I believe some pretty darned well off people manage to pay no income tax as well.

More fundamentally, I think the tax code is correct in not asking the poor to pay income tax. Those living below the poverty line have a hard enough time just paying the most necessary bills. They live wondering how the next phone bill or electric bill is going to get paid, where the next rent check is going to come from. $1000 is a heck of a lot of money to them. To the bond traders and lawyers of the world that's more like a restaurant tab.

I don't resent the success of the wealthy. Really, I don't. All I'm saying is they should not enjoy continued tax cuts (well after it was promised the cuts would end) while more is asked of the less able. Not to mention social benefits being cut across the board, which will also fall disproportionately on the poor and the middle class.